Staying healthy and active when working full time can be difficult, but especially so when you're a physician that's frequently traveling for locum tenens work. As a medical professional, you know that you should be getting 7-9 hours of sleep per night, exercising several times a week, and eating healthy meals. But knowing and doing are two different things, especially when you have the challenge of doing these on the road and out of hotel rooms. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of practical, action-based tips to help you maintain a healthy lifestyle while away from home on assignment. No more excuses!

Eat Nutritious Meals

Benjamin Franklin once said “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail,” and how right he was! Simply telling yourself that you will eat nutritious meals is typically not enough to keep you on track on its own, but you can prepare yourself to make healthy meal choices on your trip by planning your meals ahead of time.

Before heading to the airport, research the local area to see where the closest grocery stores are located and make yourself a grocery list. Most hotel rooms have kitchenettes which typically include a refrigerator and a microwave. That might not sound like much, but there are plenty of healthy dishes that can be made with only those items! Maintaining a healthy diet when traveling doesn’t have to be an anxiety-inducing experience. With some proper planning, a microwave, and a quick trip to the grocery store, you can have the comfort of a home-cooked meal in your hotel room.

Additional Tips:

• Resist the temptation of convenient, but overpriced and calorie-packed airport food by packing a personal stash of healthy TSA-Approved snacks such as fruit, nuts, pretzels, or granola bars.
• Especially when traveling, daily hydration is important for optimal health. Pack a reusable water bottle to refill at the airport and at your hotel.
• Take advantage of continental breakfasts, but bypass the glazed pastries and go for instant oatmeal and some fruit instead.

Exercise Regularly

Exercise is often one of the first things to fall off the list of priorities when life gets busy. Like planning your meals to ensure that you eat healthy, plotting out when you’ll actually fit in your workout (and what you’ll do) ahead of time is the key to making sure it happens.

There are so many options to keep you active when on the go; you can take advantage of the hotel gym, find a local or online fitness class, or even get a quick workout in from your hotel room! However you choose to get moving, remember that something is always better than nothing. If you can’t make time for your normal high-intensity workout, a 20-minute brisk walk is better than nothing at all.

Additional Tips: 

• Don’t neglect to pack an exercise outfit and running shoes! If you’re going to have any chance of exercising while traveling, you need to have the right attire with you.
• Pack your own gym - a yoga mat, resistance band, or jump rope are just some examples of lightweight equipment that you can bring along to keep you active.
• Wake up 30 minutes earlier and get your workout out of the way first thing in the morning. Morning workouts have a multitude of benefits, namely reducing the possibility for obstacles to present themselves.

Get A Good Night's Sleep

If you feel like you’re not getting enough sleep, you’re not alone. A study by the CDC found that a third of Americans aren’t sleeping enough, and it may be impacting our health for the worse. A lack of quality sleep affects mood, performance, concentration, and memory as well as hurting your relationships and increasing anxiety. Yikes! So what can you do to increase your quality of sleep? Start with creating a consistent bedtime routine - a set of activities you perform in the same order every night before bed. This will help your brain separate the day from the night, clear your mind and body of the day’s stresses, and relax into sleep.

Before deciding what tasks will become a part of your nightly bedtime routine, choose a bedtime and stick to it - even on weekends! Following a consistent sleep routine helps train your brain to naturally feel tired when it's bedtime. Then, schedule a time to begin your bedtime routine every night, anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours before bed. Set an alarm if you need to. Ready to dream up your ideal bedtime routine? Check out these ideas from Healthline.

Additional Tips: 

• Traveling to a different time zone? Three days before you’re scheduled to travel, begin your bedtime routine an hour earlier (or later, as appropriate) than you normally would, and then add another hour each evening until you take off. It takes one day per time zone for your body to adjust, so planning ahead can ease the transition.
  
• Say goodbye to your devices at the beginning of your bedtime routine. Electronic devices all emit strong blue light which tricks your brain into thinking it's daytime, and suppressing melatonin production.
• Don’t go to bed unless you are sleepy! If you don’t fall asleep after 20 minutes, get out of bed and go do a quiet activity without a lot of light exposure.

Don't Forget Your Mental Health!

A study conducted by researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health found those who travel two weeks or more per month are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression. Additionally, they’re more likely to drink too much, smoke, be sedentary, and have sleep problems. The researchers recommend both the traveler and his or her employer take proactive steps to maintain physical and mental health with a heavy travel schedule. We’ve provided some good tips so far to maintain your physical health, but besides practicing those good habits, what else can you do to maintain your mental health?

Blending work and play can be another way to make your assignment more enjoyable, so take some time to explore the community you’re working in. This can be difficult if you’re scheduled down to the minute, but if you have any free time, checking out local attractions or even just a local park or café can bring adventure to your life. If you don’t have any time to spare off the clock, make an effort to befriend the people you work with! You may not see the point since you’re only working there temporarily, but having friends at work is important. Not convinced? This infographic from the Muse outlines all the ways those work friendships can benefit not only your mental health, but your career growth as well.

Additional Tips:

• Prioritize your physical health. Regular exercise can boost your mood, reduce stress, and even help alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression.
• Stay connected with loved ones. Whether that’s texting throughout the day, phone calls, or video chat, it’ll help you feel more connected and still a part of your at-home life.
• Start practicing mindfulness by checking in with yourself often. Pause and ask yourself if you need anything in this moment - are you hungry, tired, angry, or stressed? If so, what can you do to change that?

A Final Word 

Phew, that was a lot of good info! We hope you find these tips helpful as you begin your journey to physical and mental health and wellness. Still feeling overwhelmed? If there is one final piece of advice we can give you, it’s that change doesn’t happen overnight. It starts with desire, followed by one small step in the right direction.

Are there any tips you live by that we missed? Please drop them in the comments below!